


Spell it Out

by Aikori_Ichijouji



Category: Skip Beat!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magic, Awkward Flirting, F/M, Flirting, Fluff and Humor, Idiots in Love, Kyoko can't pay attention to a spell translation to save her life, Love Magic, Ren can't pay attention to anything but Kyoko, Ren telling Kyoko exactly how he feels about her and she still doesn't get it, True Love, nothing new there, overdramatic flirting, puns and other terrible jokes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-17
Updated: 2019-04-03
Packaged: 2019-10-11 18:21:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 21,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17452034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aikori_Ichijouji/pseuds/Aikori_Ichijouji
Summary: Dabbling in love magic always comes with dire consequences. Particularly when the spell caster does so in haste and misses very important details. One small mistake suddenly turns into big trouble for our favorite pair. This is the story of how they get themselves out of it... if they even want to.





	1. True Love's Curse

Kyoko smeared her eyeliner as she rubbed at her eyes with one hand while flipping through a large book with the other. She didn't care about the inevitable black circles that would halo her eyes afterwards. It would match nicely with her puffy, red eyes anyway. She ran out of tissues an hour prior and wasn't about to try cleaning makeup out of her clothing, so she bypassed using her sleeves.

Pages flew past her face as she scanned the words on them before flipping them to look at the next one below. She searched wildly through the book, the bangles on her left hand clinking with each swoop. Several more pages were pushed aside before she stopped somewhere near the middle. This one definitely looked promising.

She ran a finger over the runic characters at the top of the page and smiled weakly. Yes, this would cure her of this stupid affliction for sure. Making her way over to the small kitchen in her apartment, she washed the makeup residue from her hands in the sink before rummaging through her special pantry for the items she'd need. She made sure to keep these supplies separate from the canned soups and cereals in her actual pantry in the off chance that someone accidentally decided they were actual culinary ingredients.

Nudging the pantry door closed with her foot, her arms were full of bottles of strange liquids, paper packets and bundles of dried twigs wrapped in twine as she toddled her way back to the table where the book lay. She fumbled around trying to find the bit of chalk she used the day before during practice. Once she retrieved it from where it rolled under the armchair, she drew a circle and a few symbols on the tabletop. Pulling out her trusty, carved wooden bowl from under the table, she placed it inside the chalk circle and began pouring, sprinkling and breaking various items into it.

Half-burned candles soon surrounded the bowl and she lit them in the proper order as she carefully said the incantation from the book. She held her hands over the bowl and continued chanting for the required amount of time and watched as the ingredients in the bowl bubbled and fizzled until it was nothing more than a pile of black ash. Blowing out the candles, she lifted the bowl and carried it outside onto her balcony where she blew the ash into the wind. Exhausted from a combination of emotions and spellcasting, she promptly locked her balcony door, turned off all the lights in her apartment, and went to sleep.

The next morning, she instantly regretted falling asleep without dressing for bed. Her clothes were wrinkled and created uncomfortable pressure points while she slept that ached when she woke. In addition, her pillowcase was now stained with her makeup. She groaned and trudged to her bathroom to shower and change. Work was not going to wait for her to take her time to get her act together. Kanae depended on her to help run the shop.

"What happened to you after that delivery yesterday?" Kanae asked when she walked into the shop later that day. "I thought you said you were sick."

"For all intents and purposes, I was," Kyoko grumbled.

She told Kanae everything about how she stumbled upon her—now former—boyfriend's 'meeting' with a female member of his coven that was in no way professional, or proper for that matter. Her friend looked on with sympathy as she shared the excruciating details, cringing occasionally at the more graphic parts of her story. A buffet table was certainly not to be used in such a fashion.

"Well, good riddance to him," she said finally. "I always knew he was bad news."

"Why didn't you tell me?" she groaned.

"It wasn't my place to say anything," Kanae shrugged. "You're a grown adult, Kyoko. I can't make your decisions for you."

"Thanks," she drawled begrudgingly.

"Anytime," she gave her a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. "Now, do you want me to whip up something for you? I'm sure I've got a potion that can probably help."

"No need. I already took care of it."

"How?" Kanae asked, intrigued.

"I found a love avoidance spell last night."

"Kyoko," she warned. "You know love magic is extremely volatile and dangerous."

"Don't worry, I only cast it on myself. It's supposed to make me immune to love, I think. So no one will fall in love with me and I won't fall in love with them."

Kanae pondered this for a moment, then shook her head, "If this backfires, I'm reserving the right for a full fifteen minutes of throwing it in your face before I even consider helping."

"It'll be fine, trust me."

"Famous last words," she snorted. "Anyway, since you've been emotionally traumatized, I'll take care of the deliveries for today. Are you good to hold down the shop on your own?"

"You can count on me!" Kyoko said with a mock salute.

Kanae swept out the door with several packages in her arms and her car keys dangling from one hand. Once she was gone, Kyoko busied herself with dusting the cases and cleaning the glass until it shined. It was a slow day at the shop and she was grateful to not have to interact with a large number of people. She was still out of sorts from the day before, so her ability to keep her 'customer service' facade intact was not at its usual level of competence.

She felt the buzz of the ward on the door as someone walked in before she heard the chime of the bell. In the middle of organizing envelopes of dried ingredients, she looked up to see a tall man in a long, black coat come in. His dark, chin-length hair hung in his face like it was purposely styled to do so. At first glance, he looked mildly intimidating until she looked closer and saw the gold and white striped collar peeking out of a sage green sweater, navy slacks and the unassuming look in his eyes. He wasn't intimidating at all. Unless you count intimidatingly attractive.

The fact that she could look at him objectively and decide that, yes, he was indeed handsome without any of the accompanying metaphorical butterflies gave her hope for the spell she did the night before.

Pasting on her sunniest smile, she greeted him once he reached the counter, "Welcome! Is there something I can help you find today?"

He stood there in silence for a moment and just stared at her before he nodded quickly and reached into inside pocket of his coat and pulled out a piece of paper.

"I was given a list," he said, putting the paper on the counter in front of her.

She picked it up and scanned through each item, nodding at the ones she knew were in stock.

"I think I can put all of this together for you. If we're out of anything, we can order it and let you know when it comes in, if you'd like."

"That'd be wonderful, thank you," he almost sighed the words.

As she turned and began to open drawers to pull out the items, she covertly looked him up and down in the mirror behind the counter and inspected his clothing once more. They were perfectly tailored and looked fairly expensive.

"It's not often we get witches from uptown coming here," she remarked over her shoulder. "Did your local supplier run out?"

"My coven typically has our orders delivered, but we hadn't finalized the list until this morning and it was too late to put in an order for today," he sounded strained, as if he was having trouble getting the words out.

She ignored his awkward speech pattern and turned back to him to ask, "Warrens or Vandersud?"

"I'm sorry, what?" he was clearly looking at her face, but his eyes seemed to be out of focus until she spoke to him.

"Which coven, Warrens or Vandersud?" Kyoko asked again. "They're our only regular clients from uptown."

"Uh, Vandersud," he mumbled, scratching at the back of his neck and looking away nervously.

"I deliver to them all the time," she said, eyeing him warily. "I've never seen you before."

"Taking care of getting supplies is usually not my responsibility," he coughed, then shrugged. "But, I'm glad I agreed to help today."

"Oh? Why's that."

"Ah, because I get to meet the... lovely person who helps keep us stocked every week," he nearly choked on the second half of his sentence.

"Thanks, I guess," she looked at him strangely.

He nodded and hummed his agreement, clamping his lips tightly together.

"Here's everything except for the birch bark," she handed him a small cardboard box. "We'll be getting more later in the week. Since you typically get deliveries, I'll just arrange to take it to you by Friday. Sound good?"

He nodded again, his lips still resolutely fused together.

"Will there be anything else?"

"I'd love to— I mean, no. No, there is nothing else."

"Are you sure?"

He screwed his eyes shut and muttered a few words to himself that she couldn't quite make out. His hand grabbed onto one of the tarnished brass buttons on his coat and he ran his thumb over the surface in a clockwise pattern. After doing this for a few moments, he opened his eyes to turn a scrutinizing glare at her.

"Okay, seriously, how are you doing this?" he suddenly asked, sounding frustrated. "Is it some sort of affinity spell?"

"How am I doing what?"

"Maybe it's an enhanced glamour of some sort," he pondered aloud. "I don't understand how it's strong enough to affect even me."

"I'm sorry, but what are you talking about?" she stared at him like he had grown twelve heads.

"The entire time I've been in this shop, you've been driving me to distraction and it's taking everything in me to not blurt out how breathtakingly beautiful I think you are. If you aren't doing it on purpose, I suggest you figure out who, or what, has charmed you because I can't stop staring at your lips and wondering what they taste like," the words tumbled out of his mouth all at once, leaving him out of breath and flushed by the time he finished.

"I… uh…"

"And, apparently, that focusing spell did not last as long as I thought it would," he grumbled, clearly irritated. "Now that you've succeeded in making me embarrass myself, I'm going now. Goodbye!"

He hastily picked up the box in front of him and all but bolted through the door and she stared blankly as it slammed behind him in his wake.

"What was that all about?" Kyoko asked the empty space he left behind.

By the time Kanae returned from deliveries, several other customers—both male and female—visited the shop without incident. When her boss settled back behind the counter with her, she began animatedly telling her about what happened earlier. She looked at her thoughtfully before speaking.

"Kyoko, what spell, exactly, did you use?" she asked carefully.

"It was one from the books we have on reserve in the back. I'll show you."

She disappeared and returned quickly with a large leather-bound book in her hand. Opening it to the same page as she used the night before, she pointed out the spell.

"See? It says 'Love Avoidance' right there. I followed it to the letter."

Kanae looked at the page for a long moment before she blinked, and did it again for good measure.

"Well, the good news is the spell probably didn't backfire."

"And the bad news?" Kyoko asked hesitantly.

"You mistranslated this symbol," she pointed to one particular character in the title at the top. "When it's turned to the left it means 'avoidance,' but this one is turned to the right which means…"

"Seeking," Kyoko completed her sentence, looking horrified. "It was a love seeking spell."

"Not just any love seeking spell," Kanae corrected. "A true love seeking spell."

Kyoko groaned loudly and let her head smack against the countertop.

"Well, before I get into my promised fifteen minutes of 'I told you so,' let me first congratulate you on finding your true love."

True to her word, Kanae lectured her for a full fifteen minutes about the dangers of performing spells and incantations while emotionally compromised. Kyoko listened dutifully while bemoaning her own fate. She would mistranslate a spell and get herself into a mess of this caliber. Letting her own emotions get her into trouble was the hallmark of her personality and one would think she would know better by now. Apparently not. Kyoko was forever destined to get herself into self-inflicted scrapes as sure as the sun rises in the East.

Once the shop closed that evening, she joined Kanae for dinner at their favorite diner. They chatted mostly about inconsequential things in order to keep her mind off the bluder she made the night before. It worked, for the most part, until she was alone at her apartment. She took the book home with her, along with a few others, and spent the remainder of the night researching if there was any way she could possibly reverse the spell. For the second night in a row, she fell asleep still wearing the clothes from earlier in the day.

When she arrived at work, Kyoko was greeted with the sight of an ostentatiously large bouquet of lilacs, mallow, sprigs of witch hazel and… striped carnations? She carefully gave the vase that held it a wide berth as she entered the shop. It looked top-heavy and the last thing she wanted was to clean up scattered flowers and glass shards. Kanae had an unamused expression on her face when she finally looked away from the floral monstrosity to greet her.

"What's the deal with the flowers?" she asked. "I thought you weren't seeing anyone."

"I'm not," her friend said pointedly. "They're for you."

"They're what?!"

"Oh, yes, your mystery man from Vandersud has sent you the most confusing bouquet in the history of the language of flowers." she said, gesturing to the mass of intimidating foliage.

"Then, how do you know it's from him?"

She pushed a small, white envelope across the counter towards her with one finger. Kyoko opened the flap and slowly pulled out the card contained within. The card was embossed with a fleur-de-lis in the center and made from high quality paper. On it, a note was written by hand and contained only two lines of text.

"My waking thoughts have been consumed by you since yesterday," Kyoko read slowly, then frowned when she got to the second line. "Please, make it stop."

"He probably still thinks you've done this intentionally," Kanae said with a giggle. "You'd do well to explain to him what really happened. It's a shame he had to be another witch. If he was a normie, he would've just obsessively courted you and you'd just have to set up some wards to keep him away."

"That situation wouldn't be preferable either!" she whined in dismay. "And how am I supposed to explain anything to him when I don't know who—wait, who's R.T.?"

She flipped the card around to show Kanae the initials scribbled below the note. Her friend plucked it swiftly from her fingers to look at it again, laying it flat on the counter before her.

"I'm guessing he enchanted it so only the true recipient would be able to reveal the name of the sender," she said with a slow nod. "He's talented. Very impressive."

"Will you please stop being impressed and help me fix this?" Kyoko pleaded angrily.

"No, no, hold on a second, I'm thinking..." Kanae looked pensive, like she was trying to remember something important. "Oh! Oh my!"

"What? What?!" she asked frantically, trying to get an answer.

"You said he was tall, right?" Kanae asked for confirmation. "Long-ish dark brown hair and eyes? Obscenely handsome?"

"Yes, sure, whatever but what—" she began when Kanae interrupted her.

"Holy shit, Kyoko, do you have any idea what you've done?!" she asked, nearly hyperventilating.

"No, I don't, because you won't actually tell me what this is about!" Kyoko nearly screamed her reply.

"I was wrong when I simply congratulated you yesterday. I think this would be more appropriate," Kanae got up from the stool she sat on behind the counter and applauded.

"Not. Helping," the other woman ground out through clenched teeth.

"Kyoko, my dear, your true love is none other than the head of the Vandersud coven himself," Kanae tapped a perfectly manicured nail against the initials written on the note card. "Ren Tsuruga."

The words drifted into her ears, scrabbling to find purchase somewhere so she could fully comprehend them. Once they latched on, the realization forced a squeak out of her mouth. It continued and grew in pitch until it petered out into a croak when she ran out of breath. Her feet shuffled along the ground like a shambling, reanimated corpse until she reached the stool beside Kanae where she promptly collapsed onto it.

Kyoko was well, and truly, screwed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND: Well now you know what I've been spending some of my break working on (when I'm not writing ridiculous fics about Ren being a sphinx). I've finally added some more meat to the bones of the oneshot I wrote for Ren/Kyoko week 2018. So many of you agreed that it absolutely must be it's own multi-chapter fic and I was spurred on to work on it.
> 
> As an added bonus, I decided to release three chapters at once. Since most of you have already read the first one, I couldn't just give you one extra chapter and leave you in the lurch until I get the time to updated it. So, here is a gift from me to you. Enjoy!
> 
> AUTHOR OUT!


	2. Worst Laid Plans

"I can't do this alone, Kanae. You have to come with me," Kyoko begged desperately.

Friday finally arrived and the promised delivery to Vandersud hung ominously over Kyoko's head. While her friend eventually managed to convince her to talk to the head of the coven and explain the circumstances behind the unfortunate spellcasting, she was not prepared to do it by herself. Short of getting on her hands and knees, she beseeched her friend to accompany her. Said friend looked at her, wholly unamused before rolling her eyes and sighing with feigned reluctance.

"Fine."

"I didn't think you'd agree to it so easily," Kyoko admitted in shock after a brief pause. "Honestly, I prepared at least three more minutes worth of groveling."

"You'll just have to save it for next time. Besides, I'm curious to see just how badly this spell is affecting him. If the card and bouquet he sent is anything to go by, this will be highly amusing."

"You laugh at my misfortune," Kyoko pouted.

"Only because this is exactly the sort of trouble you'd get into."

Truthfully, Kanae was concerned enough to know she shouldn't send her alone. Despite gaining the attention and affection of the head of one of the city's most prestigious covens, she had also incited his ire. Crossing someone that influential was bound to come with some heavy repercussions. If anything, she would help Kyoko make a proposal to fix the problem and, hopefully, petition for some leniency.

They arrived at the coven's uptown headquarters that afternoon; an opulent, four-storey brownstone townhouse. Once they completed their delivery responsibilities, they requested an audience with the coven head and were ushered up a flight of stairs and asked to wait in a sitting area outside a pair of highly polished wooden doors. Kanae reclined on the plush loveseat while Kyoko chose to fidget uncomfortably on a padded armchair while they waited. An assistant came by and brought them hot tea served in delicate china cups that made Kyoko wonder if she was supposed to point her pinky finger outward while she drank from it.

By the time they were fully overwhelmed by the nearly stifling luxury that surrounded them—it took approximately ten minutes—the double doors opened and a man with light brown hair and wire-rimmed glasses stepped out. The two women turned to him expectantly and he gave them a polite smile.

"Miss Kotonami and Miss Mogami?"

They both stood and nodded in response to his question.

"I'm Yukihito Yashiro, Assistant Head of the coven," he introduced himself. "I'm told you have something important to discuss with Ren?"

Kyoko struggled to respond so Kanae smoothly took over for her.

"Yes, it's in regards to an interaction he had with my employee at my shop earlier this week. We simply wanted to clear up the matter, if we could, and explain the rather peculiar circumstances behind it."

"I see. And by 'employee,' I assume you mean Miss Mogami here?" he asked, motioning towards Kyoko, who remained pale, paralyzed and silent.

"That is correct."

"Considering what he's told me about whatever spell or enchantment seems to be involved with this situation, I doubt he'll want to see her," he admitted, before a smirk crept onto his face. "However, he's been bothering me all week with this so I've half a mind to let her in there anyway."

"Oh, really?"

"I've had to listen to him ponder aloud what he thinks her favorite color is or if asking her on a dinner date would be too forward before immediately turning around and angrily forbidding me from ever discussing the matter again. If you had to endure the kind of conversational whiplash I have for the past few days, you'd react the same way.

Kanae's smile mirrored his and she let out a small laugh. He was a man after her own heart and she instantly took a liking to him.

"I like the way you think. Let's bring her in with us," she spoke in a conspiratorial stage whisper.

Kyoko let out a tiny squeak and ducked behind her friend.

"Please don't send me in there," she entreated with a whine. "He'll probably magically lobotomize me and banish me to an uninhabited island."

"More like tie you up and banish you to his bedroom," the man thought he muttered it quietly enough, but Kanae's frown told him he was a little too loud.

"Kyoko, this whole predicament is your doing anyway. You need to be the one to explain yourself."

Reluctantly, she nodded, knowing Kanae was right.

"Alright," she groaned.

"Allow me a minute to… prepare him for your arrival. I'll return momentarily to see you inside."

With that, Yukihito slipped back through the doors for a short time before they opened again and he poked half his body out into the waiting room. They walked over to the door when he beckoned them with one hand. Opening the doors wider, he gestured for them to enter ahead of him.

The office was intimidatingly large and neither woman was able to keep their eyes from wandering as they took in the expensive oil paintings hung on the walls and the tall, mahogany bookshelves filled with old leather volumes of spell books and antique magical paraphernalia. Kyoko pressed herself closer to Kanae's side as they neared the desk at the far end of the room where a dark-haired man sat, regarding them stoically over his clasped hands.

"What can I help you with, Miss… Kotonami, was it?"

"I believe the person you should be addressing is Kyoko here," she said firmly, stepping to one side and gesturing to the woman idling nervously behind her.

"No, no, I'm quite satisfied to speak with you exclusively," he sneered haughtily. "As exquisite as your companion is, she is somewhat of a detriment to my ability to properly express myself."

Kanae huffed and folded her arms, giving the man a pointed glare. All previous thoughts of helping with the negotiations flew out the window along with her politeness. If he was going to be childish and treat Kyoko like she wasn't even in the room, she was not going to stand for it.

"Well, I'm not here to be her translator," she snapped. "As I am both her employer and your supplier, I came as a neutral third party to arrange an opportunity for you to sort this out. But, this is explicitly between the two of you."

"Miss Kotonami, please—"

Completely ignoring the man's plea, she gestured towards the timid woman standing beside her.

"Since you were unable to be properly introduced last time, I will be nice and do it for you. This is Kyoko Mogami, third-year student at LME and my employee for the past year," her lips tilted into a crooked grin. "She also likes sweets, fairy tales and long walks on the beach."

Kyoko sent her a glare before stammering in a tiny voice.

"N-nice to meet you."

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm leaving the rest to you."

To emphasize her point, Kanae stepped away from Kyoko and sat primly on the gilded sofa placed off to the side. Stunned into impressed silence, Yukihito quietly joined her and the pair waited patiently to see what would happen next. A guttural sigh escaped the lips of the coven head as Kyoko stiffly walked closer to him with lurching steps.

"I-I discovered what the cause of our situation is," she began shyly. "There was a spell I cast the night before you came to the shop that seems to be the culprit."

Kyoko pulled her phone out from her pocket and began scrolling through the photos on it before she came to the image she wanted. She'd taken a photo of the spell from the book she borrowed before returning it to Kanae. Turning the screen to face him, she approached his desk and reached across it, offering the device to him. When his fingers brushed against hers as he took the phone, both winced at the surprisingly pleasant shudder that passed through them.

"A true love seeking spell?" he mocked her openly. "Did they stop warning first-years that love magic is exceedingly unstable or were you just not paying attention in class?"

"I should know better and I'm sorry," she apologized. "This never should've happened."

"But, this is an old spell, and an extremely difficult one to successfully cast at that," he examined the image of the spellbook thoughtfully. "By all rights, this shouldn't have worked for a novice. It seems you are as adept at spellcasting as you are beautiful."

His face softened, his voice became wistful and Kyoko's cheeks cycled through several shades of pink and red before finally stopping at crimson. She spluttered her words, unsure as to whether she should thank him or refute his statement. Her brain decided to randomly pair some consonants and a vowel together.

"Guh?"

Ren cleared his throat loudly, rearranging his face to the sternest expression he could summon.

"Anyway, what exactly were you trying to accomplish with this spell? Were you pining after some boy in your class, hoping that he'd notice you?"

He said it so disdainfully, like he was removing a dirty piece of gum stuck to his shoe. Yukihito was right about the whiplash bit, she admitted. It was wholly unnerving to watch him vacillate between lovestruck and condescending.

"NO!" she protested a little too loudly before adding in a quieter tone. "Goodness, no. It was the opposite, actually, and I made a huge mistake."

"Mistake?"

"I thought it was a love avoidance spell because I read the rune incorrectly. I kinda went through some... recent trauma and wanted to avoid relationships altogether."

Kyoko tried to remain as vague as possible as to her reasoning. The last thing she wanted to do was give this man an overly detailed account of her romantic misadventures. Considering the condition he was already in, thanks to her spell, she didn't think that would go over well.

"You're saying that I'm forced to restrain myself from vaulting over this desk and ravishing your mouth until you're gasping for breath because of a mistake?"

The words were out of his mouth before he could even think of stopping them. As a result, they stared at each other in shocked silence, his cheeks taking on a hue similar to that of Kyoko's, whose own were now bright with an almost radioactive glow.

"Damn, we should've made some popcorn for this," Kanae whispered in disappointment to her companion on the sofa.

"I can always have an assistant send some up," the man beside her offered.

"If that involves you getting up, don't bother. I have a feeling you're not going to want to miss a second of this."

"I… we… well," Kyoko floundered before shaking her head and leaning forward to yank her phone from his hands. "What I'm saying is that I want to fix this. You know, reverse the spell and put everything back the way it should be?"

He lifted an eyebrow and looked at her with no small amount of skepticism.

"So the fact that you have enamoured one of the most powerful warlocks in the city is not something you wish to exploit?"

"It's really, really not," she said emphatically. "In fact, I'd rather we forget this whole mess ever happened."

Kyoko hoped that wasn't a faint pout she saw cross his face, but the snickering from the peanut gallery sitting just behind her told her it definitely was. She shot them a scowl over her shoulder.

"But, according to this spell, we're meant to be," he pressed with a hint of disappointment. "Soulmates, even. That doesn't intrigue you at all?"

"I'd rather have the freedom to choose on my own without a spell telling me. I'm not keen on having some random ingredients in a bowl and a few chanted words dictate who I'm supposed to spend my life with," she said, unable to hide the bitterness in her tone.

As her idyllic belief in love had been shattered pretty recently, her thoughts on romantic destiny and soulmates suffered a similar fate. Her eyes narrowed at him, like she was daring him to try arguing the point any further. Wisely, he backed off.

"I see. Well, the fact that you want to rectify the situation as opposed to taking advantage of it is… admirable."

It was obvious from the way his mouth twisted on the last word that he had waged war against his own tongue to make sure he didn't say anything (else) untoward. He looked over to where his Assistant Head sat and addressed him directly.

"Please give Miss Mogami access to the coven libraries. Set her up as a probationary member, if you must. She will have one week, starting Monday, to find a reversal for her spell."

"And what happens if I don't find one in time?" she challenged.

"Then I'll have no choice but to get the authorities involved. While this more than qualifies as a gross misuse of magic, I am delaying that because it was unintentional. But, I cannot very well run a coven while being constantly distracted by you."

"Wait, only a week? That's all?" Kanae asked in disbelief.

"It's alright," Kyoko assured her friend, who was taken aback by the sudden determination in her voice. "I'll do everything I can to put things to rights before then. Thank you for your understanding and for use of your resources."

Truthfully, this had gone a lot better than she anticipated and Kyoko was loathe to not accept the olive branch that was extended. Despite his obvious displeasure with the situation, he was being reasonable. And she would be too. Had their roles been reversed, she doubted she would have been as understanding. Besides, the coven was known to have an extensive private library with a collection of older books that surpassed even the one at her school.

"Anything for— I mean, you're welcome," he corrected with an awkward nod. "If you encounter any difficulties, you can contact Mr. Yashiro with questions."

"Of course. Thank you again," she said before turning to leave.

Kanae rose to join her and the two women were escorted out of the office by the second-in-command, who then instructed the same assistant they'd met earlier to set up Kyoko's membership so she could return to the coven the following week. Once the pair was sent on their way, he sauntered back into the office, closed the door behind him and leaned against it. Crossing his arms over his chest, he examined Ren from across the room. He watched the man shake his head silently to himself before burying his face in his hands.

"So," he began, barely containing the smile that threatened to curl his lips. "That went well."

"Don't patronize me," Ren grunted from behind his hands.

"And am I correct in assuming you plan on avoiding her next week?"

"Yes. I'll be sequestering myself to this office for the duration," he confirmed.

"Couldn't you have just taken the week off? I'm pretty sure I can handle things in your stead for that long."

"Our quarterly Board meeting is the week after next."

He looked at the younger man dubiously. That sounded like a flimsy excuse to him.

"And all the materials for that meeting have been compiled in advance. Not to mention I've already held a Board meeting as your proxy at least once before. What's the real reason, Ren?"

Folding his arms on the desk, Ren pushed his face into the crook of one elbow and mumbled his reply. Yukihito leaned forward in a mock attempt at trying to decipher his muffled words.

"I didn't catch that. How about you try that again without hiding and maybe enunciate this time?"

"I can't be trusted to stay away from her if I'm alone," he said, lifting his head with a woeful sigh.

"Ah, so, you're in need of a babysitter?"

The reproachful glare Ren sent across the room caused the hairs to stand up on the back of his neck. He laughed nervously.

"What was stopping you before?"

"I didn't know who she was; only where she worked. But now I know her name and that she's studying at LME. I sent her flowers the day after meeting her, for crying out loud. There's no telling what I might do in a moment of temporary insanity. Therefore, I need to be here and I need as many distractions as possible."

"Have you considered that, maybe, you should spend time around her?"

"Yes, by all means, let's give me ample opportunities to scare her away. I can barely keep a filter intact when I speak to her," Ren's words were stuffed so full of sarcasm, they were splitting at the seams.

"So I noticed," his associate said in a monotone.

"Yes, and you found it rather funny, didn't you? Don't think I didn't hear you and Miss Kotonami tittering like gossiping debutantes."

"That… is beside the point," Yukihito defended hastily. "What I meant is you could treat it like a sort of immunotherapy. The more exposure you have to it, the easier it'll be for you to build up a resistance."

"And you would have me foist myself upon her when she clearly has no interest in anything other than finding a resolution for our problem?"

"I didn't say you should try to date her," The older man shook his head. She's clearly not looking for that sort of thing anyway. Just get to know her so she's not just some random stranger who happened to catch you on the wrong end of a spell. Why are you always so adamant about keeping your distance from everyone? You know very well this is not the first time you've been like this."

Ren continued to look unconvinced and Yukihito threw his hands up in defeat.

"Fine, I won't say any more. The decision is ultimately yours anyway."

"Thank you."

The following silence lasted all of five seconds. Ren was certain of this because he had counted, waiting for the inevitable.

"I just think that, if you two are supposed to be predestined or something, it couldn't hurt to find out why instead of treating each other like you don't exist."

And, there it was. He smiled knowingly.

"What happened to not saying any more?" he asked in amusement.

"Oh, please, you've known me long enough to know I wouldn't end it there," the man scoffed.

"True, but I never pegged you as a hopeless romantic," Ren teased.

"The only hopeless one here is you, Ren," he shot back. "I'll leave you to your pining over a woman you barely know."

"No, don't—"

But, it was too late. His Assistant Head had already left, shutting the door quietly behind him. He groaned in frustration. Hadn't he just made it clear that he could not be left alone? Frantically searching his desk for something to distract him, he came up empty. All of the requests he received earlier in the day were already signed.

It was getting stronger again, the buzzing in his head that started the day he met Kyoko. Most of the time, he could keep it at bay by focusing on something else but, anytime he was around her or not otherwise distracted, it would double in intensity. That was when he would typically do, or say, something stupid. Worst of all was the fact that there was nothing he could do to stop it, short of letting it run its course.

He hated that buzzing and the impending ill-advised behavior that often followed it.

By that point, it had reached a fever pitch and he sharply muttered a curse before picking up his phone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THE SECOND CHAPTER IS ALWAYS THE HARDEST: When you're trying to expand on a one-shot, that next chapter is one heck of a struggle. I wrote and rewrote this one several times because, while I tried to keep it lighthearted and funny, it would suddenly get serious and dark without my permission. That was when I knew I couldn't work on this and Anomalous at the same time. Anyway, you didn't come here to see me babble, go read the next chapter. I know you're dying to!
> 
> AUTHOR OUT!


	3. Fanning the Flames

Kyoko was on the warpath when she entered the coven the following afternoon. Long, quick strides took her up the stairs and she ignored the frantic pleas of several of the members as she rushed by them towards Ren's office. Once she reached the large doors, she put all of her strength into violently shoving them open. They parted with an elongated squeal and banged shut behind her as she stormed into the room.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" her voice was white hot with anger and her face contorted in a grimace.

Ren looked up from his computer screen and eyed her dubiously.

"I could ask you the same thing as you are the one currently barging into my office unannounced."

"That is not the issue here."

"Then, by all means, please enlighten me," he fought to maintain a tone of indifference, but his mind refused to let go of the notion that the woman before him was undeniably attractive when incensed.

The room suddenly felt several degrees warmer to him.

"You have no right to contact the Dean and request that my course load be adjusted to fit your ridiculously tight schedule."

Focusing on their argument was a decent enough distraction to keep him from blurting out any malapropos but, heavens, she was downright adorable when she stomped her foot like that. Once her words finally registered in his love-addled brain, he frowned at her.

"I believe it was you who agreed to the terms of having one week to find a solution."

"That's because you left no room for negotiation and I was just glad you didn't try to have me arrested on sight."

"What, pray tell, is your complaint then?"

Feeding off of her anger was doing wonders for helping him stay calm. The fact that witnessing her irate expressions and actions were extremely pleasurable was just icing on the cake. Depending on how long they were going to be stuck like this, he would have to try this tactic again.

"This issue is between the two of us," she gestured between them. "I hoped we would keep it that way but, now, I have professors asking me what I'm doing at Vandersud that's so important that the due dates on my upcoming assignments are to be given automatic extensions."

"I'm sorry, I thought that you would find that helpful considering the time constraint," Ren folded his arms across his chest, looking not the least bit penitent. "It seems that someone is being a bit of a choosy beggar."

Something inside Kyoko snapped and her right eye began to twitch. She balled her hands into fists and stomped closer to Ren's desk, stopping when her hips collided harshly with the wooden edge. Raising one hand, she jabbed a finger threateningly in his face.

"Well, if you're so interested in resolving this as quickly as possible," the accusatory finger was then pointed towards his office door. "Then get your ass down in that library and actually help me."

Ren stared intently at her finger and his blood boiled him alive from the inside. She was absolutely, unequivocally, a veritable goddess when she was demanding. His brain short circuited and he floundered for an answer.

"I… can't."

"If you're not magically tethered to your desk by some kind of binding spell, then I think that's a load of bullcrap."

Fiery. Fiery was a good way of describing her, he thought. Fiery and irresistible. But, he digressed and she was expecting an answer. He cleared his throat.

"You know very well what happens when I spend extended periods of time around you. If you wish to be spared exposure to any of the inappropriate comments or behavior your spell compels me to do, you would not demand such a thing."

Kyoko rolled her eyes and huffed. Ren yearned for those eyes to focus on him once more.

"I think I can hold my own against the consequences of my own actions for a few days. Besides, if we work together, you'll be rid of me that much quicker."

She had a legitimate point, he considered; his thoughts finally cleared of their lovelorn leanings for a moment. It was in both of their interests to work together, though he couldn't help but hear the triumphant laughter of his Assistant Head in the back of his mind. His long, low sigh echoed through the office, followed by the errant drumming of his fingers against his desk.

"Fine, I will assist you," he watched her face brighten considerably and a bolt of warmth shot through him along with the desire to ensure that her face never looked any less radiant than it did in that moment. "However, I will need several minutes to compose myself. Alone."

Kyoko raised an eyebrow, her nose wrinkled at some strange thought that crossed her mind.

"I'm going to go with my better judgement and not even ask about that," she abruptly turned away from the desk and waved over her shoulder as she walked back towards the doors. "I'll see you downstairs."

Ren spent several minutes pacing the length of his office with worried strides. This was then followed by multiple failed attempts at meditation. Realizing he was not making any progress, he gave up and left for the library.

He found her at a table towards the back. A fond smile spread across his face when he realized she'd, unknowingly, picked his favorite spot in the entire place. Three books were neatly stacked on the table beside her and she was reading intently through a thicker volume, her brow cutely wrinkled in concentration. Ren relished the sight for a few seconds before he made his presence known and pulled out a chair beside her.

"You actually came," Kyoko didn't bother to look up from her book.

"Did you doubt that I would?"

"Perhaps," she intoned, briefly licking her finger before effortlessly flipping to the next page. "I wondered if you agreed just to placate me so you could come up with an excuse later as to why you couldn't make it."

"I'd never do such a thing," he scoffed at the very idea. "Even without the effects of this spell."

"Think you're a man of integrity, do you?" Kyoko finally looked up, eyeing him with obvious suspicion.

"I try to be," he gave her an odd look.

"Hmm, we'll see."

"What is that supposed to mean, exactly?"

"Just that," she shrugged. "We'll see."

Deciding to ignore her odd comment, he focused on the task at hand. He pointed to the sizeable tome she currently held.

"Are there any other volumes I can get for you?"

"Not sure, honestly. This is what I've picked out so far," she showed him the titles of the books she'd placed beside her. "If you think there's anything that might be supplementary or helpful in anyway, I'm open to suggestions."

He nodded, "Can I get another look at the original spell? It might help narrow down my search."

Kyoko pulled her phone out of her pocket and scrolled again through the photos on it until she came to the image of the spell. Handing it to him, he looked at it again, but more carefully this time. Once he was satisfied he had all the information he could get from it, he handed it back to her and left to request a few books from the reference desk. There were several books he knew she wouldn't be able to access without special permission, so he took the liberty of getting those as well just in case they could shed any additional light on their predicament.

Returning to the table, he sat beside her and silently went through the books he'd collected for the next two hours. It was the only thing he could do to distract him from the smell of the woman beside him. She bore undertones of a subtle floral scent that mixed in with the pleasant vanilla-like smell that wafted over from the ancient books in the restricted materials section. He'd always loved that aroma and, now that it mingled with hers, the combination took the top spot on his list of favorites.

The words on the pages began to make less and less sense to him with each new book he opened. His nose had become too preoccupied with the fragrance that seemed to surround him. It was time to find another diversion.

"So, what did you tell them?"

Why his brain decided to choose the most non-sequitur opening to a conversation as an adequate solution, he couldn't say. Still, it got her to look up from her book in curiosity. It wasn't perfect, but he'd consider it a win.

"What did I tell who?"

"Your professors," he clarified. "When they asked about why I made that request to your Dean."

A sly smile worked its way across her face and she shook her head, "I told them I lost a bet."

Skeptical, he squinted at her.

"And they believed you?"

Kyoko snorted, "I'm one of their best students. They'd probably believe me if I told them the sky was purple."

"So modest," he deadpanned.

"This coming from the guy who personally called the Dean and had my assignments extended simply because he could," she lifted her shoulders with nonchalance. "Pot, meet kettle."

Ren laughed easily, revelling in the fact that, despite their proximity, he experienced none of the manic, amorous compulsions he had thus far. He figured, much to his chagrin, that Yukihito had been correct. Hopefully he would never have to openly admit it. At least not around any other witnesses.

"Speaking of that," she glanced at her watch and started to pack up her things. "I need to get going so I'm not late for my afternoon class. Did you find anything interesting?"

"Only a biographical account of Lory Takarada," he pointed to the last book from his stack. "I figured, since he was the creator of the spell, maybe we'd get a clue as to how it can be reversed. Since every magic user has a signature style, if you figure his out, you might be able to find the key to how it works."

"Oh, that's a good call," she smiled; his heart melted into a useless puddle of goo. "Mind if I take it home with me tonight to peruse?"

"You know very well I can't say 'no' to you. Not right now anyway."

"Well, I'll have to test that theory after we reverse the spell and see if it still holds true," she winked at him and he hoped his years weren't shortened by the fact that his heart forgot how to beat properly.

He watched her tuck the book under her arm and quickly exit the library with his head propped up by an opened palm. A longing sigh escaped him and he realized how absurd he must have appeared to the other members around him. Especially considering that their esteemed coven head was rarely seen spending extended periods of time around anyone if he could help it. He could barely bring himself to care.

Regardless, they needed to sort this out quickly. Despite the fact that spending time around her significantly reduced his propensity to say and do inappropriate things, it didn't change the fact that he was becoming increasingly smitten with each passing moment. He needed to be free of it before he started entertaining more elaborate fantasies. Like marriage.

He spent the rest of the afternoon and early evening strategically avoiding the internet and all jewelry shops. Still, he couldn't shake the dreams of placing a beautifully faceted, pear-cut pink diamond ring on her finger that night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally getting around to cross-posting this to Ao3 from FF. It'll be slow-going, but I hope it's worth it to you all!


	4. In Somno Veritas

**CHAPTER 4: In Somno Veritas**

The pleasant melody of her ringtone was made less so by the jarring sound of her phone vibrating against the hardwood surface of her bedside table. Kyoko lifted her bleary-eyed face from where it had previously been firmly pressed into her pillow and made several failed attempts to grab the offending device as it danced and skittered beside her until her fingers finally closed around it. Not bothering to check who was calling, she decided that, whoever it was, would get an unfiltered piece of her mind.

"If this is a marketing call, be advised that I will find you and I will hex you so hard, your great-great-grandchildren will feel it," she growled.

"I would love to see you try," came a taunting voice on the other end.

The fog cleared from her head in an instant upon hearing that familiar, sonorous voice. What the hell was he doing calling her so early? Furthermore, since when did he have her number?

"Ren, how did you get this number?"

"Your employer was kind enough to give it to me," came his matter-of-fact reply.

Kyoko made a mental note to herself to kill Kanae later. Maybe she would curse her first. Yes, a triple cursing followed by eventual death sounded like a good plan to her.

"And why are you calling at," she pulled her phone away to look at the time displayed on the screen, "four in the morning?"

"I found something I thought you might be interested in."

"And this could not wait until later because…?"

"I couldn't sleep," he supplied, finishing her sentence.

"Poor baby," she sounded not the least bit concerned.

A self-satisfied smile settled on her face at the sound of his frustrated sigh. If he was expecting sympathy for waking her up, he was sorely mistaken.

"It is hard to get a good night's rest when I can't stop thinking about you," his voice sounded husky and tired.

She cursed her traitorous heart for stuttering at his words. It's not as if he meant any of it, because the stupid spell was to blame. Still those words had never been said to her with such sincerity; at ungodly hours of the morning or otherwise. Banishing the sudden flood of warmth she felt, she focused again on the conversation.

"I suppose that's as good a reason as any," she rolled over onto her back. "So, what did you find?"

"I think this is something best shown in person."

Kyoko breathed silently for several seconds, trying to curtail the sudden rage that flared.

"You woke me up before sunrise and you want me to leave my extremely comfortable bed because you found something  _interesting_?" she stopped short of screaming it into her phone only because she didn't want to wake her neighbors.

"I'm being denied proper sleep because of  _your_  actions," he reprimanded her sharply. "Perhaps I was incorrect in assuming you would take responsibility. If my memory serves me correctly, we both agreed that we wanted to find a resolution to this as quickly as possible, did we not?"

That stopped her tirade in its tracks.

"I-I'm sorry."

"No, I should apologize," he exchanged his indignance for penance. "That sounded way less manipulative in my head."

Now that she had a second to think about it, she found she had to agree with him on that. Oddly appreciative of his self-correction, she conceded.

"Well, I guess I'm fully awake now anyway. I assume you're at the coven?"

"Yes."

"Is it even open at this time of the day?"

"I'm the coven Head," he reminded her. "I can come and go whenever I please."

"Yes. Right. Of course," clearly she was not as awake as she claimed.

"Call me at this number when you arrive and I'll release the wards to let you in," he instructed before his voice softened considerably. "And be sure to dress warmly. It's quite cold outside."

She did as he told her and called when she was standing at the entrance to the building. The realization that she now had the personal number of the leader of one of the most influential covens in the city was not lost on her as she pulled it up on her phone. They hung up after a brief exchange and she wrapped her coat tighter around herself against the frigid breeze. Moments later, the door unlocked before her and opened.

He stood just inside, dressed in jeans that appeared to be at least once size too large and a well-worn t-shirt with faded lettering. His hair was an adorable mess atop his head and Kyoko internally warred with herself for admitting that he was still attractive even in this state of dress. Dismissing the thought, she hastened inside the door to join him, exchanging quiet greetings. She was confused at first when he led her upstairs to his office, but soon realized upon the blast of toasty heat that pushed through the door when he opened it to let them in.

"It didn't make sense to heat the entire building when we're the only one's here," he explained, when he noticed her starting to shrug out of her coat.

She nodded in understanding and followed him over to his desk where he had several books laid out. When he reached out towards the arm over which she'd draped her coat, she looked at him strangely before handing it over.

"Here, I'll trade you," he took the coat from her outstretched hand and replaced it with a mug full of steaming liquid.

Bringing the mug to her nose, she sniffed and caught the rich, heady scent of coffee. She took a sip and hummed pleasantly at the flavor.

"Thank you," she said after savoring the first sip.

"I didn't know how you took your coffee... but I figured a hot drink after being out in the cold wouldn't be amiss."

She noticed the awkward pause after the first part of his sentence, like he was restraining himself from asking if it coincided with her taste in men. At least, considering his previous track record of random outbursts, that's what she imagined he would say next.

"This is perfect," she assured him. "I acquired a taste for black coffee after I got lazy while pulling all-nighters before final exams. Sometimes you're too tired for sugar and cream."

Ren chuckled fondy at her and shook his head.

"I don't miss those days."

"I long for the day when it's nothing but an unpleasant memory for me too," her laugh was short and rueful. "Anyway, you said you had something to show me?"

Ren invited her to sit in the chair he'd moved behind his desk alongside his own. Once they were both seated, he showed her a passage in the book he had open just in front of his keyboard.

"I found an account in another book written by a contemporary of Takarada's," he explained, handing the book over to her. "She described a conversation she had with him about the spells he had created."

She gently took the book from his hands and looked down at the passage he pointed out.

"After the consumption of an inordinate amount of spirits one evening, Lory confessed to me the secret to his spellcraft," Kyoko read aloud from the book. "He was well aware of his infamy for creating spells—particularly those that focused on love and relationships. That night, he divulged the secret that, while they appeared otherwise, none of his spells were permanent. He believed that reversals should be similar to the turning of a coin."

She took a few seconds to fully process what she read.

"So, all of his spells are reversible?" Kyoko asked, her voice hopeful. "Oh thank goodness."

Ren nodded sleepily with a knowing smile, "Keep reading."

"When I pressed for more details as to which spells were the reciprocals of others, he waved me away with a laugh," she continued from where she left off. "While his ethos may have compelled him to make his spells reversible, he had no inclination of revealing the solution. More fun was to be had from making the discovery on one's own, he declared."

Kyoko stared blankly at the words before her and took another slow sip of coffee.

"I honestly should not be surprised that historians have chosen to highlight the ravings of an absolute madman," she griped.

"Hmm?"

She looked over at Ren, whose head lolled against the back of his chair, his eyes closed and his mouth slightly open. Her lips quirked up in a smile and she let out a brief snort.

"Are you sleeping?"

"Mm, pretty voice. Soothing," he mumbled and she strained to make out his words. "Read more."

"Are you sure you don't want to stretch out on the sofa?" she cautiously reached out to poke the side of his face and was amazed to find he didn't budge.

"Only if you join me," well  _that_ sentence came out crystal clear.

"When I said I could hold my own against you, that did not include you trying to jump me on your office furniture," she pointed out with a complete lack of amusement.

Ren's face wrinkled in disgust. He yawned and his body slumped to one side until his head rested on her shoulder. Kyoko was glad he was drowsed enough to miss the squawk that came out of her mouth when his body made contact with hers. Her face was instantly aflame and nonsensical syllables formed on her lips.

"Wouldn' do that," his words continued to slur together. "Not very nice."

"Then go lie down on the sofa and leave me here," she suggested again.

"Nooo," he whined, his face snuggling closer into her neck. "No leaving."

She pushed against his side, quietly trying to pry him off of her. It wasn't until his arm stretched out to snake around her waist that she reached her tipping point. Forcefully pushing back on her chair, she stood up and watched his body arch precariously over the armrest of his chair before he jolted awake.

"What happened?" he asked when his eyes finally focused on her face after several blinks.

"You fell asleep and turned into some sort of cuddle monster," that really was the best way she could describe it.

Her arms were wrapped tightly around herself and she tried not to think too hard about what shade of red her cheeks must have been in that moment.

"I didn't… do anything to you, did I?" he winced, waiting for her to tell him of his misdeeds.

"Short of using my shoulder for a pillow and, I think, trying to hug me? No."

Ren let his head fall into his opened palm, "It seems I cannot control myself when I'm not conscious. My apologies."

"It could've been worse, I suppose," she tried to shrug it off.

"Wasn't that bad enough?" he frowned at her blasé attitude.

"Well, if you've learned your lesson, then how about you go finish your nap on the sofa over there so I can keep working?"

Now that he was awake, she hoped the third time was the charm for her initial recommendation.

"Oh, yes, of course," he looked over at the sofa and back at her. "You don't mind?"

"It's fine. Go get some sleep."

The heavy-eyed look of gratitude on his face told her she gave the right response. She watched him settle onto the ornate piece of furniture and suppressed a giggle as he spent a few seconds trying to find the most comfortable configuration for his long legs. With a snap of his fingers, a soft blanket and fluffy pillow materialized out of nowhere and settled on his body and under his head respectfully.

"All that effort and you don't even adjust the size of the sofa to fit your body?" she muttered under her breath.

"It's an antique and extremely difficult to enchant without damaging the structural integrity," his voice was muffled by the blanket and pillow.

Kyoko covered up her shock at being heard with a snarky quip, "Not your first time napping in your office, huh?"

He tilted his head back on the pillow to look at her over the armrest with a smirk, "Not even close."

She couldn't hold back the laughter that burst from her lips. The dreamy-eyed way he looked at her at the sound of her mirth caused a return of the furnace in her face. Choking on a final giggle, she averted her eyes and coughed awkwardly into the crook of her arm.

"Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, really," she scrambled for something to distract from her embarrassment. "Is the spell making you more concerned than usual or are you always this paranoid?"

"Is it wrong to be worried about someone you… respect?"

She raised an eyebrow at him and rested her chin against her hand, "Respect, huh?"

"Believe me, you don't want to hear the other options the spell has placed in my brain," he assured her.

"Right, no," she waved a hand frantically, as if to shoo away imaginary flies. "I'll take respect. Respect is good."

"I thought so," his voice was both sleepy and smug.

"Oh, go to sleep already," she rolled her eyes at his tone.

"Yeah, yeah," he turned over and resituated the blanket over himself.

Kyoko watched him for a few moments with a soft smile before she shook herself out of her reverie and turned back towards the books before her. Try as she might, it was hard to ignore how much she appreciated this side of Ren. Their first meeting was embarrassing and their second even more so. She didn't know if the spell was to blame—and she wouldn't be surprised if it was—but the gradual softening of his prickly exterior in her presence was a welcome change.

She tried her best to ignore the feelings her thoughts were causing. That was a dangerous road she swore she would never travel again. Despite the fact that he was handsome and kind and caring and he worshipped the ground she walked on  _none_  of this was  _real_!

Shaking her head, she forced herself to read more from the book she had in front of her. By the time she had skimmed through three more books and performed multiple online searches on Ren's computer, she was oblivious to the way her eyelids drooped. Her mug of coffee had long since been drained and she was feeling the repercussions of waking up so early. Still, she was pleased to learn that some scholars had discovered the counterparts to a number of Takarada's spells.

It seemed that the revered warlock was not without a sense of humor. Many of his love spells were counteracted by his curses or affliction enchantments, and vice versa. Love at first sight? Cancel it out with a blindness curse. Infatuation? Try a generous application of a temporary insanity enchantment. However, no one had yet to find one for her spell in particular. Many shied away from it due to the fact that it was purported to be a true love spell. No one wanted to risk the consequences of what would happen if they were incorrect.

When she picked up one of the other books on the desk, the last things she remembered were the crack of the spine as she opened it and the first sentence of the page she turned to before she, too, fell asleep.

Yukihito opened the door to Ren's office a few hours later to find the two of them out cold in their respective places. He took a second to smile at the sight before tiptoeing over to his superior and quietly waking him for their scheduled meeting across town. Once he opened his eyes, Yukihito silenced him with a hand before pointing to Kyoko's sleeping form at his desk.

After stretching slowly once he stood, Ren walked over to the rack near his desk and reached for his coat. In one fluid motion, the fabric swirled around behind him and, by the time it had settled about his shoulders, his previous attire had changed from old jeans and a shirt to a dark, tailored suit. He silently motioned to his Assistant Head for the two of them to depart. Once they reached the door, he paused to turn around. With a flick of his wrist, the blanket he left on the sofa swooped into the air before it came to rest on Kyoko's shoulders with a flutter. Satisfied, he continued on his way out of the office, leaving the door to close quietly behind the two of them.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SERVING UP A LITTLE FLUFF WITH YOUR HUMOR. Hope you enjoyed!


	5. Nothing Ventured, Nothing Retained

**CHAPTER 5: NOTHING VENTURED, NOTHING RETAINED**

"Kanae," Kyoko called from the shop's storage room. "Did you move the reference books from where they used to be back here?"

"Yea, after a certain employee of mine used one of them to make a coven leader to fall in love with her, I figured they should probably be more securely stored."

Kyoko rolled her eyes and huffed with a low growl.

"Well, that same employee needs to do some more research so she can undo what she did. Now, unlock the safe."

Kanae grumbled, but eventually did as her friend asked and brought her the book that had started this entire unfortunate situation. The young woman took it with eager hands and immediately opened it on the counter top she stood near. She flipped quickly through the pages, scanning each one before moving on to the next. As she progressed through over half of the book, her speed slowed and she began to click her tongue in frustration as she turned each page.

"Not finding what you're looking for?" Kanae guessed.

"No," she sighed. "For all of the other ridiculous spells this man created in his lifetime, he never made one that makes someone hate you."

"Are you trying to make your besotted coven leader hate you instead?"

Refusing to let the teasing get to her, she explained to her friend what she and Ren had learned about the hypothetical method for reversing the spell two days prior. Hypothetical only because no one had figured out the reversal for that particular spell yet.

"So we just have to cast its opposing counterpart," Kyoko finished, still reading through the book. "So I figured it had to be a hatred spell, but this is the second day I've been searching and I've got nothing to show for it."

Kanae just gave her a flat look before she shook her head.

"Isn't that little  _too_  on the nose, Kyoko?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, if it's as you say and no one has been able to find a reversal for that spell, wouldn't that have been one of the first options to be ruled out?"

Kyoko froze, the page she had been reading crumpled beneath her grip. Her lips were clamped tightly together, yet a small whine escaped them nonetheless. Kanae chuckled.

"You hadn't considered that, had you?"

"No," Kyoko's shoulders sagged in defeat.

"I don't think that spell would have been the right one anyway."

"Why not?"

"The opposite of love isn't hate," Kanae stated plainly. "They're both too similar and too charged with a myriad of emotions to be opposites. If anything, they're almost cousins."

"So, what do you think the opposite of true love is?"

Kanae shrugged.

"I can't say for sure. Maybe something along the lines of apathy?"

"Apathy?" Kyoko's nose wrinkled at the very idea. "How is that the opposite?"

"Well, think about it. When you're in love, you're consumed with how you feel about the other person. Everything they do, everything they say and everything they think is on your mind because it matters to you. What would be the opposite of that?"

"Complete disinterest," Kyoko breathed, her eyes wide with comprehension.

She slammed the book shut with an audible clap and retreated to the back room. When she returned, her purse was in her hand and she picked up the book on her way towards the shop's entrance.

"And where do you think you're going while you're still on the clock, young lady?" Kanae's words halted her stride.

"To do some more research where there's a bigger collection of books like this," she held up the one she had in her hand. "There's only a few days left to my allotted week, so this still takes priority, right?"

Kanae appraised her with a scrutinizing look. Her lips twisted into a mocking smile.

"Sure, tell your boyfriend I said hello."

Kyoko breathed out a noisy, exasperated sigh and walked out the door.

* * *

The coven library was buzzing with activity when she arrived and she scurried to her preferred corner of solitude as quickly as possible. Once she had set her things down in her little sanctuary, she went to peruse the shelves in search of any books that might help her. It wasn't long before she had amassed enough of a collection to build a low wall of books on the small table she'd claimed for herself.

She spent several hours inside her book fortress, moving from one to the next once she had extracted all she could from the pages. So far, she couldn't find anything that would be applicable to Kanae's theory. Perhaps indifference was a bit too bland for Lory Takarada. He certainly did have a flair for the dramatic, after all, so she wouldn't really be surprised.

But, if that was the case, then either the theory was incorrect or the presumed solution was.

Her head bent forward until it was resting on the opened book before her and she groaned. Reading small text under bright overhead light was fast becoming an effective cocktail for fatigue. She was about to call it quits when a human-shaped shadow appeared across her book.

"Sorry I couldn't make it down here sooner," a voice accompanied the shadow. "I was busy, but I got your message and I'm here now to help."

She craned her neck to look up at the male who stood near her, squinting at the lights that turned the majority of his face and body into little more than a silhouette. Recognizing him instantly, she cupped a hand above her eyes to ward off the glare before shaking her head.

"I didn't send you any message."

"But one of the front desk attendants said that they were told to let me know you were here…" his confusion soon turned to understanding. "Of course."

"Of course what?"

"It seems my meddlesome Assistant Head has interfered once again."

Ren quickly took a seat beside her and she was grateful for him giving her neck a rest. The gentle brush of his shoulder against hers, however, had her wishing a different sort of reprieve. Dismissing the involuntary shudder that ran down her spine, she turned her focus to their conversation.

"Is he trying to set us up or something?"

"I think that was his initial idea, but his new hypothesis is that the effects of the spell would be lessened the more time I spend around you," he sighed. "I was deliberately avoiding telling him he was correct, but it seems he's figured it out anyway."

"Clever man," Kyoko mused. "Perhaps he should be the one helping me instead. At least he won't be mooning over me the entire time."

"I'm not mooning," he protested.

Kyoko raised an eyebrow at him.

"Between the love-struck smiles, the wistful sighs and your continuous need for some sort of bodily contact,, you most certainly are."

"I mostly try to keep it to myself, but sometimes I can't control it," he pouted, but noticeably shifted away from her.

"I appreciate the effort," she said flatly.

Ren sighed again, accepting his loss in this particular verbal bout.

"Anyway, I see you've built a rampart out of books over here," he pointed to her construction efforts. "What are you looking for this time?"

Kyoko's recounting of the conversation between herself and Kanae felt more lengthy than it actually was. There was something peculiarly exhausting about telling the man who's in love with her about her machinations to invalidate his feelings. And, if she didn't know any better, she swore it got more difficult each time she had to share details about her research with him. The fact that he would attentively listen to her every word as if she were giving a scintillating lecture made it worse.

"Unfortunately, I can't find any spells that would affect any sort of apathy or indifference or any other synonym I can think of," she let out a rueful laugh. "I suppose, if one was easily available, I probably would've gone for that instead of getting myself into this mess in the first place."

"So, why did you do it? The spell, I mean," Ren asked carefully, recognizing her sensitivity to the subject.

Kyoko let out a long breath and ran a hand through her hair, stopping to scrub her nails against the nape of her neck. Sitting back in her chair and staring at nothing in particular, a grim smile formed on her lips.

"Oh, it was your typical story of girl meets boy. Girl grows up with boy and, later, proceeds to date said boy. Girl subsequently finds boy in a compromising position with another girl on top of a buffet table."

"Yikes," Ren winced.

"Yea."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be," she waved a hand at him. "Unless you were the buffet table, you weren't involved in any of this."

He laughed; his eyes glittered with mirth and she couldn't help but smile. His mood was infectious like that and she often found her lips curling in spite of herself. She really wish he'd stop doing that.

"Well, since I'm involved now, you have my sympathies. I guess I can understand your motives a little better," he leaned forward and folded his arms on the table. "This is almost the opposite of what you wanted when you cast that spell."

"Exactly," she agreed. "All I wanted to was to forget about him. Forget about love entirely."

Ren's face fell for a moment and, though he tried to cover it up, she noticed. She leaned towards him with a curious expression.

"You just had a thought," she guessed. "What was it?"

He hesitated and looked away briefly before his eyes returned to hers.

"You said you wanted to forget," his voice was suddenly very quiet.

"Yes, and?"

"You agreed with me when I said that the spell was the opposite of what you wanted."

"... Is there a point to this?"

"You said you wanted to  _forget_  and that you got the  _opposite_  of what you wanted," he repeated himself, stressing the words he found important.

"...oh. Ohhhhh!" Kyoko frantically pointed at him. "We need to see if Lory created a forgetting spell!"

"I might know which one it is," he all but mumbled the words under his breath. "The book is probably still in my office."

She heard him anyway.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's locate it!"

Kyoko jumped up from her seat and began packing her notes back into her bag and stacking her collection of books to return them to the circulation desk. When she noticed Ren lagging behind her at a much slower pace, she sent him a questioning glance.

"You'll understand when you see it," was all he offered by way of an explanation.

The book was, in fact, still on his desk when they made it to his office. After being pushed out of the way to make room for various paperwork and other things that took precedence, it sat all but discarded at the far corner. Ren picked it up and sat in his chair; a subtle hand wave bringing a second chair to park next to his. He invited her to sit beside him and opened the book, flipping past several pages until he stopped at his intended destination. Gesturing to the page on the left, he handed the book over to her to inspect.

"Finical Remembrance Extirpation," she translated the runes at the top of the page out loud.

She blinked once. Twice. Then looked at Ren with a frown.

"This is a memory wipe spell."

"Not just any memory wipe. It allows the caster to remove all memories—written, spoken or otherwise—associated with a certain person from both themselves and the person on which it's focused," he explained, pointing out the detailed description that followed the title. "Essentially leaving both parties with zero recollection of each other. Very helpful for botched first impressions, I'd imagine."

She was half-listening to his explanation while studying the spell on the page. Something stood out to her and she couldn't tear her focus away from it. It was something she had seen before, but dismissed it as an anomaly. Pulling out the book she brought with her, she opened it to the page she bookmarked that displayed the spell she originally cast.

Looking between the two, she confirmed her suspicions. Kyoko leaned towards the man beside her and pointed between the two spells.

"Do these two runes look like they were written the exact same way?"

"Well, they should if they were written by the same person," he wasn't trying to be deliberately obtuse, but he did not follow her train of thought.

"No, I mean, look closely," she pointed to a particular point on the character. "There's an extra tiny stroke at the end here on both of them that doesn't seem to be made by lifting a pen to transition to another character."

"Could it be an idiosyncratic thing?"

"This rune translates to nothing more than an indefinite article," her brow furrowed in confusion as she pondered aloud. "Furthermore, it's written several more times throughout both of these spells and only once is it written in this particular style."

Both of them stared at the two spells in silence, eyes scanning between the two runes Kyoko identified. In the same moment, they looked up at each other, the first tendrils of an idea beginning to take hold in both of their minds. They knew that the other was thinking the exact same thing as they were. Kyoko immediately began to dig through her bag for her notebook while Ren called Yukihito to tell him that he would be unavailable for the remainder of the day.

They didn't come up for air for several hours after that.

"This is incredible," Ren breathed as he stared, stupefied at the myriad of books and papers on the desk before them. "Who would've guessed these spells had a hidden visual clue like that?"

"I gotta hand it to the old man," Kyoko leaned back in her chair, stretching her arms over her head until her joints popped. "He may be completely insane, but he's nothing short of brilliant."

Their eyes were exhausted, but they had proven their theory. While they were only able to confirm a handful of the spells, it was enough to determine that they were correct. Every spell created by Lory Takarada had an innocuous, but oddly drawn, character that tied it to its counterpart. Locating them was, for lack of a better term, a veritable witch hunt and both of them had to look away from the pages for several minutes simply because their eyes could no longer focus.

"This is big," she said, her voice reverent with awe. "I mean, huge. Forget graduating early, I could almost be out of LME tomorrow and have the choice of joining any of the top covens with this."

"Too bad neither of us will remember it when this is all over."

Kyoko stopped rubbing at the crick in her neck and her eyes opened wide. Right. That was still a thing they intended to do. What's more, they already had the means by which to, quite literally, revert everything back the way it was.

"Having second thoughts?" Ren asked, noticing her change in demeanor.

"You and I made an agreement," she said stiffly, sitting up straight in her chair. "Regardless of what we've uncovered, I still intend to honor that. I'm not going to keep us in a situation that causes both of us such discomfort for my own selfishness."

He remained silent, causing her to turn and look at him. The expression on his face told her he was just as conflicted about this as she was. Well, that was a bit of a relief. At least she wasn't the only one having an internal crisis. She figured he had even more of a reason to continue with their arrangement than she did. But, he had been acting strangely from the time she even mentioned a spell that would help them forget each other and she still could not understand why.

"Do you really want to prolong the anguish of pining for me for the sake of a—albeit groundbreaking—discovery?"

"Are you asking me value my sanity higher than a significant contribution to the magic community?" he countered her question with one of his own.

"Uh, yes!" she cried in disbelief, emoting wildly with her hands. "There are other scholars out there who can connect the dots just as well as we have. We just happened to get there faster out of necessity. This isn't worth sacrificing your well-being. You have a coven to lead, for goodness sake!"

"Aw, Kyoko, you  _do_  care!"

He leaned over the side of his chair, letting his head rest on her shoulder, a teasing grin on his face.

"It's called common human decency," she wriggled under his weight, helpless to banish the color that bloomed on her cheeks. "Now get off of me!"

He righted himself, sitting properly in his chair once more. A sneaky smile crept across his face and he shot her a sidelong glance. She wondered what that look meant, but didn't have to for long.

"Of course, we are forgetting the obvious option."

"Which is?" she sighed.

"We go along with the spell."

Kyoko's face drained of all color, "Oh no—"

"I mean, spending more time around you does lessen the effects of it," he began to ramble, heedless of her protests.

"This is not what we agree—"

"And it doesn't seem like you hate me."

"That doesn't mean anyth—"

"Why not give it a try?"

"This is the spell talking, Ren," she held up a hand, her eyes begging him to reconsider. "Not you."

"Is it? Not once today have I had to filter my words around you," that bit of information stunned her into silence, so he continued. "Kyoko, we've spent so much time together focusing on how to fix the problem, we never stopped to wonder why we were chosen for each other in the first place."

"Yea, because I  _thought_  that's what we both wanted."

"And it was, at least, at that time," he admitted with a nod. "But, now, I've had time to reconsider."

"Clearly a fatal error on your part," Kyoko muttered under her breath. "What changed?"

"You grew on me," he shrugged with an impish smile.

"But, you know I'm not ready for any sort of—" her hand gestured between the two of them, "this. Not to mention that none of this is even real. This is only happening because of the spell."

"Yes, but  _why_?!" he pressed, his eyes searching hers. "Do you really think I was randomly chosen as your match? You've learned, just as I have, that magic is never indiscriminate. If it has no predetermined aim or direction, a spell will always fail."

Kyoko could not deny that he had a valid point. She looked away, too overwhelmed by her own conflicting feelings to argue.

"I'm well aware this is not something you're interested in right now," Ren was quick to defend in a much softer tone. "And I'm not saying we have to be lovers starting tomorrow. Hell, we could find out that it won't work out between us and go back to the original plan."

"Then what are you suggesting?" she asked finally.

"There's only two days left, so we use the remainder of our allotted week spending time together and getting to know each other."

Oh, if his Assistant Head could only hear him now. The shit-eating grin that man would have on his face would, most likely, haunt him for the rest of his days. He was thankful, in that moment, that he was not present for this conversation.

"That sounds an awful lot like dating," she balked at the idea.

"If that is how you wish to describe it," he waved off her concern with a hand. "As for me, I'd rather we be fully informed of the decision we're making before we go about obliterating our memories."

"And at the end of the week?"

"We make a choice; to stay as we are or to forget everything," he looked as if it physically pained him to finish that sentence.

The concept sounded so ridiculously simple, Kyoko couldn't help but be suspicious. However, the more she thought about it, the more she realized the advantages. They could easily sate their curiosity about each other and, when they decided it wasn't worth pursuing—there was no 'if' as far as Kyoko was concerned—they wipe the slate clean and start back at zero. She couldn't help but think how much her dating life would have benefited from this sort of convenience, but wondered if it wouldn't cause her to keep choosing the wrong type of person over and over again.

Tilting her head alternately from side to side, she mulled it over a few seconds more despite this being the least risky uncertainty she'd ever faced.

"Fine," she spoke decisively and reached out to shake his hand, "I accept."

Ren took her proffered hand and shook it once, before turning it over to press his lips gently against the back of it. With a squeal, she yanked her hand back and held it against her chest, her cheeks red once more.

"W-what do you think you're doing?!"

"It's called flirting, Kyoko. I'm sure you've heard of it," he drawled, looking awfully smug. "Now, where would you like to go for dinner?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been supremely lazy about dual posting chapters over here. The only benefit for you is that you get several chapters to read at once!
> 
> So... yea, there's your silver lining!
> 
> AUTHOR OUT!


	6. Familiarity Breeds Consen

**CHAPTER 6: FAMILIARITY BREEDS CONSENT**

"I can't believe this is what we ended up doing."

"I left it up to you to decide where we ate and you couldn't pick anything."

"That's because I normally eat at home!"

"Exactly. So, here we are."

Kyoko's mind was still reeling from trying to figure out exactly how Ren managed to invite himself into her apartment. She must have been in a daze following their conversation in his office as she completely missed whatever she had said that led to a trip to the grocery store for ingredients. Yet, there he was, washing rice at her kitchen sink while his coat and scarf hung on the hooks by her front door. According to him, rice was the only thing he could consistently make well. The idea that the head of a prestigious coven—who could perfectly follow complicated spells to the letter—was wholly incapable of cooking was humorous to her.

So, she laughed. Both at him and the peculiar situation in which they found themselves.

Still, he was quite helpful despite his lack of cooking skills. Ren was quick to grab whatever she needed, asking only where it was stored before handing it off to her. All the dishes she used during her preparation were already washed and drying in the rack beside her sink. For the briefest moment, she considered that it would be nice to have this kind of help all the time before she shook her head to banish the thought from going any further than that.

Because her kitchen was quite small, it was almost cramped when two people attempted to use it simultaneously. When Kyoko went to step backwards to reach for something on the spice rack behind her, she tripped over the toe of Ren's shoe and nearly fell over. However, he quickly steadied her with an arm about her shoulders. They faced each other like that for only a second or two, her leaning backwards against his arm and him bent over her.

She didn't miss the way his eyes briefly focused on her lips before he pulled her back into an upright position and continued on his way back to the sink.

Due to her lack of an actual dining table, they ate on the stools she had pulled up to the outer edge of the counter that faced her equally small living room. Her dishes were simple and plain white and her silverware mostly matched with the exception of the few odd pieces that had to be replaced after they were ruined by a few unsuccessful spells. She was probably more self-conscious about it than her guest. It seemed as if Ren neither noticed nor cared.

He opted for a plate while she chose a bowl. His reasoning was that he needed more real estate to properly showcase the rice because he 'worked so hard on it.' Thus, they sat with their respective dishes and began to eat. When Ren offered magnanimous praise for her culinary creation, he finished with an expectant look. Rolling her eyes, Kyoko's lips tilted up on one side and she thanked him for his contribution to the dinner, albeit in a much less enthusiastic tone than his.

"So, where would we have gone if you were the one to choose our dinner destination?" she asked once she was a third of the way through her meal.

"Probably the diner around the corner from the coven," Ren shrugged. "As you can tell by my stellar rice-cooking skills, I eat out quite often. That place is my favorite spot on my way home. They make the best fries."

"No five-course meal in some fancy restaurant, then?"

"I figured that would be a bit intimidating," he shook his head. "If the point of this was to get to know each other, I'd rather a more comfortable atmosphere."

"Well, it doesn't get much more comfortable than this," she gestured around her.

"Not to mention, you have the advantage of being in your home territory," he pointed his fork at her. "You are free to kick me out whenever you see fit."

"Oh," she breathed before slowly putting another forkful of food in her mouth.

She rather liked the sound of that.

"So, are there any topics that we should strictly avoid during the remainder of our acquaintance?"

Kyoko pondered his question for a moment, chewing her food slowly before she answered.

"I'd prefer to not talk about my family if we can help it," her nose wrinkled a bit at the thought. "There's a lot of drama and history there that I'm not fond of dredging up."

"It would seem that we are alike in that respect," he nodded both in understanding and agreement. "Anything else?"

"I don't think so. As long as you're considerate and it's within reason, you're free to ask."

"Oh, good," Ren sounded relieved. "Because I've been dying to ask you about that."

He pointed to the coffee table in the living room behind them. Her large wooden bowl still sat on it, surrounded by partially spent black candles, branches, leaves and sage bundles. Those were all fairly normal things one would find in any witch or warlock home. The small collection of nearly a dozen handmade effigies sitting just beside all of that was not.

"We were studying historic magical items from different cultures," was her generic answer. "It was a requirement for one of my courses."

"Unless the coursework has changed significantly in the last four years," he scoffed. "I doubt you were required to make that many."

"I… may have gotten a little carried away," she mumbled, shooting him a sideways glance when he laughed. "What? They were kind of fun to make."

"Well, you definitely have a talent for them. They're actually very well made."

"I—" she fumbled for a witty retort and gave up. "Thank you."

They continued to eat in companionable silence for a bit longer. She noticed he ate much slower than she did, taking smaller amounts of food at a time. Still, he steadily worked his way through what he'd piled on his plate. There was an odd feeling of relief at the realization that he was clearly enjoying what she'd prepared. She didn't need to impress him with her cooking. So, why did the fact that he seemed to like it make her so happy?

The fact that he promptly washed their dishes after they were finished eating made her even happier.

"So, you practice your spells at the coffee table?" he asked once they'd each settled into a chair in her living room.

Kyoko nodded, "It's the room with the tallest ceiling and the balcony door provides decent ventilation."

A wry grin formed on his face and a short chuckle escaped his lips before he could stop it.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"No, I heard you laugh," she pressed. "What is it?"

"When you give people a tour of your apartment, you can say that this is literally 'where the magic happens'," he only just managed to hold back a giggle.

Kyoko's face fell, "You're unbelievable."

"What can I say? I have enjoyed a delicious meal in the company of a," he paused for effect, " _bewitching_  woman. I can't help myself."

"I thought you said you could control yourself," she raised an eyebrow at him with a frown.

"I was being completely honest," his neutral expression betrayed no hint of ridicule. "I happen to think you're quite beautiful, Kyoko."

"Nope," she began to protest.

"Stunning," he insisted.

"No!"

"Gorgeous."

"Please stop."

"Winsome?"

"Did you get that one from  _Ye Olde Thesaurus_?" she teased him. "I don't think anyone uses 'winsome' anymore."

"Oh well, you winsome; you lose some," Ren grinned.

Kyoko groaned, slapping one hand against her face while the other pointed towards her door.

"One more awful joke and I'm kicking you out."

His lips pulled themselves into a pitiful pout and he stared at her with wide, beseeching eyes. She shook her head and sighed at this, completely powerless against such an innocent expression.

"I'll be good, I promise."

She eyed him warily, "Does Yukihito know you're like this?"

"I wouldn't be able to work so closely with him if he didn't."

"That poor man."

"He's really not. I pay him exceedingly well," he gave her a sheepish grin when he saw her warning glare. "Besides, you two are part of a very small group of people who know the real person behind the lofty job title and the need to keep up appearances."

"And I only barely know you, really."

"Likewise," Ren agreed. "I think the only things I know about you are that you are an exceptional student and worker who's trying to get over recent heartbreak with aid of magic and excessive amounts of sass."

"My sass is not excessive," Kyoko defended with a pout.

He raised an eyebrow at her, "You stormed into my office with a complete disregard for anyone, jabbed a finger in my face and demanded that I help you."

"Okay, maybe that was going a bit too far," she acquiesced.

"Honestly, I thought it was kind of hot," he admitted candidly.

Kyoko's face colored in an instant. Inwardly, she cursed herself as she scrambled to regain her train of thought that Ren so effortlessly derailed.

"W-well, all I know about you is that you try to fool your coven members into thinking you're some sort of cold, untouchable leader when you're a giant goofball behind closed doors."

"That's probably all you need to know, really. I'm not that complicated," he agreed with her assessment. "Okay, maybe I'm a little more complicated than that, but that would require more than just a few days of spending time with me to learn."

"How so?" She was curious.

Ren wagged a finger at her with a smile, "We agreed not to talk about our families."

"Ah, right."

He grew quiet after that and looked pensive. Kyoko watched him stare at nothing in particular, clearly deep in thought. Patiently she waited, not risking breaking the silence and disturb him. Eventually, he voiced the question he'd obviously been mulling around in his mind.

"Why were you so adamant about stopping me from telling you that you're attractive?"

"We agreed not to talk about our families," she parroted his words back at him, a victorious smile on her lips.

"The insecurity runs that deep, huh?"

She said nothing in return and only shifted uncomfortably in her seat.

"Got it. I'll leave it alone," he assured her. "Just know that I meant everything I said."

Kyoko snorted, "It's really hard to believe that when you're still under the influence of the spell."

His shoulders lifted and he tilted his head to one side in nonchalance, but said nothing further.

To prevent themselves from pursuing any further unwanted paths of conversation, Ren pointed to the deck of tarot cards sitting on the corner of her coffee table and asked if she knew how to play any of the old trick-taking games with them. When she shook her head, he offered to teach her if she was keen on learning. At first, she hesitated, looking nervously at her deck. Guessing at the cause of her unease, he summoned a deck from the same nameless oblivion the pillow and blanket in his office originated.

Once the threat of someone else touching her tarot deck was eliminated, she was much more receptive to the suggestion. Carefully moving aside her paraphernalia, they cleared a space for them to play. Ren dealt the cards to both of them face up and the first teaching game began.

"You can learn a lot about a person by playing a game with them," Ren said once they were well into their fifth game.

"Can you really?" Kyoko asked, drawing another card.

"Sure, the way someone plays is a decent representation of their personality," he explained. "Such as whether they're an aggressive or defensive player. How closely they focus on the game shows their attention to detail and if they prefer probability over luck."

"Huh, I never thought about it like that," she looked between the cards on the table and the two remaining in her hand before selecting the one she would play. "Do you know what this says about me?"

"What?" he watched her pull the cards over to her side of the table after successfully taking the trick.

Dropping her last card on the table with a flourish, she smirked.

"I'm the winner."

Ren laughed as he began to pick up the cards on his side to count out his total score.

"And you didn't believe me when I said you were  _win_ some."

Kyoko halted her own counting and narrowed her eyes at him, "Don't you even start with that again."

He continued to laugh and finished counting, shaking his head all the while. After comparing scores, it was confirmed that Kyoko was, indeed, the winner. Ren complimented her on picking up the game so quickly. Gathering the cards together, he sent the deck away with the tap of his finger and a muted pop.

"I think I should take my leave before I wear out my welcome."

"Making a tactical retreat before you lose another round?" Kyoko challenged him.

"Oh, someone's cocky now that they've won a few games," he mocked her playfully. "I think we'll have to schedule a rematch very soon."

"I'll be looking forward to it," she agreed, defiantly folding her arms.

He stood and made his way to the door. After shrugging on his coat, he turned to her with a warm smile.

"Thank you for dinner and for letting me intrude on your home," his voice was soft and earnest.

"No problem," she dismissed his thanks with a wave of her hand. "This was actually a pretty enjoyable evening, despite your awful sense of humor."

"I'm not apologizing for that."

"I didn't expect you to."

It was a battle for them to continue to look each other in the eyes and not laugh. Unfortunately—or not, depending on how one views it—they both lost. Once the last few chuckles died down, Ren finished buttoning his coat and reached for the doorknob. With one final nod and a smile, he bid her goodnight. Kyoko reciprocated with a tiny wave as she watched him leave, letting out a pleased sigh once the door closed behind him.

It wasn't until she had showered and dressed for bed that she noticed it. Returning to the kitchen, she went to shut off the light when her eyes darted over to the door to make sure it was locked. There, beside the door, Ren's scarf was still hanging on its hook, long forgotten by its owner. Kyoko walked slowly towards it, careful as if it might fly off the hook and attack her. Once she was near, she reached out a hand to touch it, her fingers brushing lightly against the soft cashmere. She pulled it off the hook and folded it over, intent on placing it with her purse and keys so she could return it the next day.

Her hands, however, had other plans.

Suddenly, the scarf was crushed against her nose and the loose fibers tickled her skin. A brief inhale revealed what she already assumed to be true; it smelled just like him. Lost in the moment, she closed her eyes and breathed in again, only more deeply this time. The scent was an odd mixture of cologne, logs burning in a fireplace and… french fries? She giggled a little into the scarf and the tickling fibers caused her to sneeze. It was enough to shake her from whatever trance she was in and she looked down in horror at her hands still clutching the scarf to her face.

Kyoko then flailed her arms, let out a ghastly shriek and promptly threw the offending item across the room.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I DID IT ALL FOR THE PUNS: Spell it Out is fueled by pun-power, a hilarious and renewable resource. This chapter put out at least 50 megaGroans of energy to bring a little sunshine and laughter into your life.
> 
> AUTHOR OUT!


	7. All Odd Things Must Come to an End

**CHAPTER 7: ALL ODD THINGS MUST COME TO AN END**

To say Ren was sick with apprehension was an understatement. If anything, a more accurate description would be that his unease had rendered him completely unable to focus on anything save breathing and putting one foot in front of the other. Even that last one was becoming increasingly difficult as the day wore on.

Today was their  _last_  day.

He had half a mind to ask for an extension to their deadline when their schedules conflicted so much the day before that they only managed to see each other for little more than an hour. The majority of that time was spent slumped against each other on the sofa in his office, griping about their respective days. Though it was only an hour, the comfort of being in her presence was enough to banish the tedium and gloom from the rest of his day to whatever dark corner from which it originated.

Kyoko seemed to enjoy their time as well, her smile brightened considerably by the time they parted ways. Still he couldn't help but notice the way she continued to stay guarded around him. He wondered if she was too preoccupied with listening for the sound of the other shoe dropping to hear how loudly his entire being cried out for her.

Nevertheless, at the end of this day, they would ultimately decide their fate. He was understandably nervous.

They met outside an auditorium on the LME campus later that afternoon as Kyoko's classes kept her away from him for most of the day. Normally, his visits to his alma mater were sparing at best, but he had something special in mind for them to do.

A disorganized line of people were milling about near the entrance, separated here and there into groups and gaggles. A table was set up near the door where two students flanked a large glazed pottery bowl emitting tiny wisps of smoke. As each person passed the table, they dropped something into the bowl that, upon landing, sent bright green sparks shooting upwards into the air. Then, with a nod from the students, they would proceed inside the large double doors.

"What is this?" Kyoko must have felt like she had to whisper.

"It's an alumni lecture," he kept his voice equally low.

"Yea, but what's with the security check at the door? They didn't tell the rest of the students about this."

"Once a year, LME hosts a special guest speaker who is usually a very prominent figure in the magic community," he explained. "The lecture is offered only to a select few alumni and is by invitation only."

"And you're letting me tag along?"

He waved her concern away with one hand, "The invitation states that we can bring a guest so long as they are in good standing with their school or coven."

When they approached the table, Ren pulled what looked like two purple magnolia petals from the inner pocket of his jacket and dropped them into the bowl. They twirled from side to side before landing in the heap of incense that smouldered inside. Immediately, a shower of green appeared and he smiled at both of the attendants who stood at the table before nodding his head towards where Kyoko stood beside him.

"She's my plus-one."

One of the students seemed to recognize her and their eyes widened in surprise before offering her a tiny wave that she returned just as timidly.

"Surely there were other people you could have taken with you," she said as they filed in behind the other guests in search of a seat. "Why me?"

"Because this particular guest is… somewhat relevant to our interests."

He said nothing beyond that cryptic reply as they chose two seats off to the side and out of the glare of the bright stage lights. Once the rest of the guests had entered and were seated, a man walked onto the stage with an air of overstated importance completely at odds with the boring, gray suit and canary yellow tie he wore. After introducing himself as the president of the school, he went on to give a brief description of their guest speaker that night before stating their name and inviting them to join him on stage. Kyoko gasped quietly beside him when she realized who the person was.

The great-great granddaughter of the man who had, indirectly, turned their lives on their respective ears.

Maria Takarada.

She was a petite, middle-aged woman in stature only, her long, voluminous curly hair adding a scant few inches to her height. Everything else about her was poised, elegant and grandiose. Maria Takarada was the only person Ren had met that could wear crushed velvet, lace and a handful of sparkling rings like most people wore tennis shoes.

As a renowned researcher of energy fields, she spoke at length about the latest data from her study of human auras. Images, charts and graphs of all sizes and colors floated, enlarged above her head and changed with a flutter of her fingers. Her most recent discovery was that auras had a detectable frequency. Additionally, that frequency changes when in the presence of others. People who shared very close relationships displayed auras that resonated. Conversely, complete strangers and people who did not get along with each other had dissonant auras that conflicted.

Ren glanced to his left to see Kyoko paying rapt attention. He let his eyes trace the profile of her face over and over again in an attempt to commit the shape to memory. The way her nose would crinkle every so often. The way her lips stayed slightly parted. He'd have that image permanently burned into his retinas if he could and the threat of it all being taken away from him without leaving behind so much as a vague memory scared him more than he would admit.

Was there anything he could say or do to convince her to let them stay this way forever?

He doubted it, but hoped all the same.

Following the lecture, there was a lavish reception full of bubbly drinks in a variety of vibrant colors and servers carrying silver trays loaded with tiny samples of food that had elaborate names. Kyoko seemed to be of the mind that the other guests deserved to enjoy the offerings more than she did, so Ren would casually swipe something from a passing tray he noticed she had her eye on. When he turned to greet someone with the usual pleasantries, he'd quickly place the item in her hand so he could avoid the look she was, no doubt, giving him.

The guest of honor made her way through the room, stopping to chat quickly with everyone who caught her eye before she eventually approached him and Kyoko. Her smile wide, she walked right up to him before throwing her arms about his torso and wrapping him in an enthusiastic hug. Ren leaned forward to reciprocate while exchanging a look with his equally confused companion.

"Oh, Ren. Look at you," she leaned back to scan him from head to toe. "All grown up and running one of the top covens in the city. It's been, what, six years? Seven?"

"It's a pleasure to see you again as well, Ms. Takarada."

"Please," she scoffed. "You're no longer a student. You can just call me Maria."

"Of course," he nodded.

"And who is this fetching young lady you've brought with you?" she smiled brightly at Kyoko. "Last I heard, you had taken a monk's oath of celibacy."

"The rumor mill must be running low on material if that's the best they can come up with," he turned to introduce Kyoko. "This is Kyoko Mogami, a third-year here and one of the top students in her class."

"So, you're scouting the talent before they even graduate? Or is this," she gestured between him and Kyoko, "something else?"

"Well,  _he_  certainly is something else all on his own. I don't think he needs my help with that," Kyoko interjected before an awkward silence could pervade, thrusting a hand forward in greeting. "It's an honor to meet you, Ms. Takarada. I thoroughly enjoyed your lecture."

Maria laughed, clasping both hands around Kyoko's, the gemstones in her rings catching the overhead light and glinting as she moved.

"Oh, this one's got sass! I like her already. Thank you so much, my dear. It's actually quite nice to see some new, young faces around here instead of the usual old and stuffy ones. Their auras are just as bland and dusty as they are."

Kyoko looked both impressed and awestruck.

"You mean you can actually detect auras without the aid of a seeing stone?"

"It runs in the family, I'm afraid. So I couldn't escape it if I tried," she let out a merry giggle. "Ren has always had a beautiful one, so it's nice to see someone else who's aura compliments his so well. If only I had the two of you as research subjects during my study. I'll bet you have a lovely resonance."

Kyoko was struck dumb by her comment, her face resembling a ripened apple. Thus, Ren answered in her stead.

"Maria, I don't think you can press gang people into being your lab rats with flattery."

Maria's laugh was as bright and beautiful as her jewelry.

"Oh, well, it was worth a shot. Anyway, it looks like that self-important president wants me to go make nice with some people so, I'm afraid I must go."

"Thank you for taking the time to say hello."

"Oh, nonsense, Ren. It was wonderful seeing one of my old students," she dismissed his words before leaning in and lowering her voice. "And don't let go of that one next to you. She's doing you a world of good. Your aura was never this bright in the past!"

Ren tried not to choke on the sad reality of their situation.

"I'll do my best."

They silently watched her walk away after giving each of them a quick hug. Once he had cleared the echo of Maria's words from his head, Ren turned to Kyoko with the best smile he could muster.

"We probably shouldn't have an important conversation on mostly empty stomachs. Would you like to get some dinner?"

She gave him a look that, despite its skepticism, warmed his insides.

"Procrastinating, huh? You're in luck seeing as I'm absolutely famished so, yes."

He had mentioned the diner near his coven two nights before. The food was good, the service was fast and it was one of the few places in the city he felt the most comfortable outside of his apartment. There was a sort of serenity about the constant murmur of activity from the kitchen interlaced with the sound of silverware clinking against dishes. Most of the people who frequented there were interested only in having a meal and leaving, thus avoiding the unpleasant awkwardness of having to make small talk with people you recognized, unless you actually wanted to talk to them.

In short, it was heaven for an introvert. And heaven could only be made more heavenly when the object of one's affections was also present.

Ren watched Kyoko eagerly tuck in to her meal and fought desperately against staring at her lips the entire time. He failed more times than he succeeded because the way they wrapped around each mouthful of food she pushed past them had him thoroughly distracted. She noticed it, too, and would stop chewing to raise a questioning eyebrow at him. With a shake of his head, he would look away only to look back and start the process all over again.

"So, when were you going to tell me that Maria Takarada was your teacher?" she eventually asked.

He swallowed his mouthful of fries before answering.

"I honestly didn't think she'd remember me. She was a temporary replacement after one professor got sick before the start of the second quarter of my first year," he explained. "Someone apparently called in a favor and asked her to teach Intro to Curses."

Kyoko made a face, "That seems like overkill."

"Oh, it was," he nodded. "She was extremely adept at curses when she was younger, before she started to devote her time to aura research. If anything, she should've been teaching graduate level classes."

"Still, you didn't think to call her up to help us out?"

"I never stayed in contact with her after that one class and she left LME as soon as the quarter ended. She was just another teacher to me at the time. It would have been a bit awkward to just call her out of the blue."

"Considering how happy she was to see you, she probably wouldn't have minded."

True, but we did just fine on our own anyway, didn't we?" he grinned.

He chuckled at Kyoko's grumbled, begrudging agreement.

Alas, dinner was over all too quickly and they returned to his office at the coven, at his suggestion, since it was closer than his apartment and a less intimidating venue for his guest. Upon arriving, he noticed Kyoko refused to sit anywhere in the room at first, looking around as if she were trying to gather her thoughts. Or her courage.

"Okay, out with it already," he prompted, her nervousness finally getting the better of him.

"I still want to reverse the spell," her eyes were tightly shut as she spoke.

"Well, I did promise to honor your decision, whatever it was," he slowly breathed out, ignoring the sudden stinging in his chest. "Can you at least tell me why?"

She wrung her hands and shifted her weight from one foot to the other.

"I really don't know how to phrase this in a way that you would understand but—"

"Try me."

Finally, she took a seat near his desk and scooted the chair right up to the edge of it so she could rest her elbows on the surface. It was like she carried a weight too heavy for her to sustain on her own. Kyoko took a steadying breath.

"It feels like cheating."

"Cheating?" he asked, confused.

"As in I'm reaping benefits that I put in no effort to earn."

"You want to earn my love?" Ren wondered if he looked as desperately hopeful as he sounded.

Her hands flailed in disagreement.

"Yes… no… I don't know! I don't hate spending time with you, but I feel like your attention is little more than an ill-gotten gain."

He raised an eyebrow at her but kept quiet.

"Even if I could, I would never be able to commit to a relationship with you without being constantly reminded that you only feel the way you do about me because of a damned spell. Not a day would go by that I wouldn't question whether any of it was real," her sigh was weary and she pushed a hand through her hair. "Hell, not a day has gone by since this whole thing started that I  _haven't_  questioned that."

"Oh."

"So… yeah. I guess you have your answer."

Ren remained silent for several agonizing seconds, choosing his next words carefully.

"Thank you for taking the time to explain it to me."

"Well, thanks for actually listening."

"I would always listen to what you have to say."

Kyoko scoffed, leaning back in her chair with her eyes pointed heavenward.

"Let's see if you feel the same way tomorrow."

"So, we're really doing this, aren't we?"

All she offered was a nod. Ren blinked slowly, took a deep breath and looked away.

"Well, there's no time like the present. I assume you'd like to be here for this?"

She sat up straight and looked at him, eyes wide with shock.

"You're going to do it now? Here?"

He looked her dead in the eye and saw his own fears reflected back at him.

"Trust me, Kyoko. If I had to do this on my own, I don't think I'd have the heart to go through with it."

He saw the corners of her mouth turn downward and her shoulders sag just a little. It wasn't his intention to bring the brunt of his dismay to bear on her, but he wanted to be honest. With both himself and her.

"How are we going to react when it's done and we find ourselves in your office at this time of night with no recollection of how we got here?" she countered.

Ren thought for a moment, trying to recall what he was doing the night she cast the first spell. From what he remembered, there was nothing odd about his behavior at that time and the buzzing in his head only started the next day when he agreed to go shopping for the coven. If this spell was similar, they most likely had until the following morning.

Hopefully.

"I don't believe it'll take effect until tomorrow, so we should be fine."

That seemed to be a good enough estimation for her.

"Alright then," she breathed. "Let's do this."

The book they needed was still in his office and he opened the page to the spell before handing it off to Kyoko. Rising from their chairs at the same time, they stood side-by-side at his desk. He asked her to read off the ingredients and summoned each of them from the coven storage room and lined them up on his desk before summoning his favorite bowl, an old, heavy marble one that had chips and cracks along the edge; each one told a story of his earlier days of learning magic.

Once they had everything they needed. It was time to begin.

Lighting the candles felt like a red-hot iron being forced through his chest. Each ingredient he added to the bowl mercilessly tore the hole that had formed in his heart wider and wider. Even the incantation was spoken with reluctant, trembling lips. But, Ren made a promise and he had every intention of keeping it. The ashes that remained in the bowl afterwards were an accurate depiction of what was left of his dream that Kyoko would change her mind.

Kyoko also stared into the bowl with empty eyes before finally tearing them away to look up at him. He could see in her face an unspoken apology.

"Since I've gone and spoiled our evening with this, I should probably go," she said in a small voice.

"You're more than welcome to stay," he said, his eyes darting between hers and trying to decide which to settle on.

"No, I… really should go."

He must have been looking at her in that longing way again, judging by her change in expression. She was always so entrancing, he couldn't help it around her. However, he noticed it softened a bit the longer she stared back at him. He wanted to know why. More importantly, he wanted to what she was thinking of just then. Perhaps it was the fact that everything was about to be over for them. Perhaps it was just the fact that he was standing so close to her.

"You're trying to stop yourself from asking to kiss me, aren't you?"

He couldn't help the anxious laugh that escaped, "Am I that obvious?"

"When you keep staring at me like that, you are."

"I'm sorry," he ducked his head, waiting for her reprimand.

"Don't be. I had almost convinced myself that I was going to agree to it."

Well, that certainly was not what he was expecting.

"You mean—"

"It's not as if we'll remember it after tonight anyway," a crooked grin formed on her face. "Besides, you kind of obsessed over it when we first met and I'm feeling generous enough to sate your curiosity."

His eyes went wide and he stared at her for several silent moments. No words came out of his mouth, but his lips moved all the same as he tried to comprehend exactly what she was offering him.

"I think I agree with you now when you said it feels like cheating."

It was her turn to laugh and he was helpless to explain how that one sound could both soothe and scar his heart at the same time.

"Well, we've already broken enough rules. What's one more going to hurt at this point?"

He nearly called the whole thing off when he saw the tremble in her fingers as she reached up towards him, but she looked so determined when she curled her hand into his collar that he let her guide his face down to hers.

It was a careful congress between their lips and they moved with an unhurried pace as if they had all the time in the world remaining. While the act itself was dizzyingly delightful in every way, Ren couldn't repress the ache in his heart. Every breath, every caress played a symphony of farewell that was building up to a crushing crescendo. At some point, he noticed the feeling of wetness on his cheeks and began to curse himself for making Kyoko cry.

He pulled away immediately, ready to apologize, when he realized that the tears were not hers.

"That—" she relented in a quiet voice. "That was probably a bad idea."

"At least we won't have much longer to regret it."

Ren tentatively lifted a hand to swipe at his face before he reconsidered and dropped it back to his side. There really was no reason to hide them from her. Not when they soon would have no memory that this night ever happened.

"Yea."

"Yea."

"I guess that's my cue to leave."

He stopped her with a gentle hand as she turned towards the door.

"If we meet again someday, I hope we'll both give each other a chance to get acquainted because I think we'd, at least, be very good friends. But, if we don't, I wanted to thank you, Kyoko. For everything."

Her smile was tired and sad.

"If anything, I should be the one thanking you."

* * *

Kyoko woke up in her usual state of muddled confusion, the lights filtering through her curtains and the alarm on her phone still chiming away. She reached over to turn it off and plodded her way to the bathroom to get ready for her day. It was still the weekend and she had a full day shift at the shop with Kanae.

Humming the tune that had been stuck in her head since she heard it playing in the restaurant the night before, she put the finishing touches on her makeup and adjusted her bracelets before turning off the bathroom light. Her boots were permanently tied just tight enough to keep them on her feet, but also loose enough to easily slip them on and off without retying the laces. She braced one hand against her front door while stuffing her feet into her boots and reached up with her other hand to grab her coat from where it hung nearby.

Instead of her coat, her fingers pulled down a scarf. She looked at it for a second, taking in the thin stripes of deep olive and gold patterned throughout the mostly dark blue fabric. Apparently, she'd forgotten to take it with her the day before so she could return it to Ren…

That thought stopped her in her tracks.

The hand against the door tightened into a fist and she pounded it once while an expletive hissed from her lips.

They did everything they were supposed to.

They followed the spell to the letter.

But, the fact that she still remembered the owner of the scarf she held meant only one thing.

"It didn't work," she whispered.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'M NOT ENDING IT HERE, I SWEAR. That would just be cruel... well more cruel than my cliffhangers, at least.
> 
> Many thanks to one of my best friends for getting me back on track with this story. She threatened to make me hang upside-down in her yoga hammock until I figured out where I wanted this to go. I still did it anyway, but not before she gave me some really good advice and suggestions (while I was still right side up, of course).
> 
> Well, if a day ever comes when I can't write anymore, maybe I can go join a circus or something.
> 
> AUTHOR OUT!


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